"As he admitted through his plea of guilty, Jeremy Hammond launched a series of computer hacks that stole confidential information pertaining to companies, law enforcement agencies, and thousands of innocent individuals," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharaa said in a statement. "His sentence underscores that computer hacking is a serious offense with damaging consequences for victims, and this Office is committed to punishing the perpetrators of such crimes."

Prior to the sentencing, Hammond read a statement in which he noted that FBI informant 'Sabu' had led him to Stratfor and overseen the attack. "I had never even heard of Stratfor until Sabu brought it to my attention," he said. "Sabu was encouraging people to invade systems, and helping to strategize and facilitate attacks. He even provided me with vulnerabilities of targets passed on by other hackers, so it came as a great surprise when I learned that Sabu had been working with the FBI the entire time. ... Why the FBI would introduce us to the hacker who found the initial vulnerability and allow this hack to continue remains a mystery."

In a recent interview with the Guardian, Hammond said he plans to spend the time in prison "reading, writing, working out and playing sports -- training myself to become more disciplined so I can be more effective on my release."